Quran Journey Series: Reflections on the Quran Verses – V

greedIn the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Woe to every slanderer and backbiter. Who has gathered wealth and counted it. He thinks that his wealth will make him last forever!  Nay! Verily, he will be thrown into the crushing Fire. And what will make you know what the crushing Fire is? The fire of Allah, kindled, Which leaps up over the hearts. Verily, it shall be closed in on them. In pillars stretched forth (i.e. they will be punished in the Fire with pillars, etc.). (Chapter 104)

The Surah is a powerful point-blank condemnation of all forms of greed and lust for material objects that human beings desire. While Islam recognizes the existence and importance of the material universe and acknowledges human dependency on material things of this world, yet it also delineates limits which should not be trespassed and stresses on balance and moderation, reminding us at the same time that

“Truly, the life of this world is nothing but a (quick passing) enjoyment, and verily, the Hereafter that is the home that will remain forever.” (Quran 40:39)

When this lesson is forgotten, the balance is lost, and one begins to consider the luxuries and comforts of this life as the be-all and end-all. One begins to hanker after these losing all sense of proportion that this life is a mere droplet in the ocean of eternity. And in this mad rat-race for more and more of this world, one loses his sense of reality as he chases vain dreams, selfish desires impelled by the egotistical impulse. Little does he know that he chases all but shadows.

In this endless breathless wild-goose chase, he becomes a slave to his physical desires and baser instincts, acting on their imperious command, and his soul is stifled and suffocated. he becomes obsessed with himself, self-absorbed and narcissistic. His single concern in life is his own material well-being which he uni-focally seeks to advance.

This has significant effects on his spiritual condition. The very basis of Muslim life is submission. However, relentlessly following the desires of his bloated Self, he becomes utterly incapable of submission, humility, surrender. He worships the god of his desires, the god of wealth, fame, power and can no longer uphold faith in ‘ no god but Allah.’  The altruistic impulses of his soul are snuffed out as a rugged narcissism and self-love takes over. The symptoms of this inner moral decay are as the surah mentions, that he becomes a slanderer and backbiter. He trespasses and flouts all limits to fulfill his greed, to the extent that he violates the rights of others and tramples over them in his relentless chase. He has no regard for others and sees them only as means to achieve his personal agenda, to be used and abused for convenience. Human connections are based on mutual respect, sharing, humbleness, inclusion, selflessness, sincerity. He has none of those, hence he is incapable of any sincere human connection and feels no shame in speaking ill of others behind their backs (backbiting) or to their face, blaming them, vilifying them (slander) and stripping them of all dignity, if that serves his own devious ends.   ‘…and do not back-bite one another. Do any of you (who back-bite) love to eat the flesh of your dead brother? Rather, you detest this act, therefore have consciousness of Allah. Certainly Allah is the One who is Oft-Turning to you in repentance, the Merciful.’ (Surah Hujurat, verse 12)

The love of wealth and luxury gives such a person a false sense of permanence of these temporal, transient objects. He gradually forgets that all is fleeting, all a passing shadow, and that the dust of the grave awaits him in the end. It is only belief in the hereafter and a consciousness of accountability before a higher power that restrains man from blindly and madly pursuing material goal to the extent of losing all sense of balance and discrimination between good and evil. It is the absence of the certainty in the afterlife that is the seed of greed and lust in the human heart. Once this greed is allowed to take root, it becomes an all-consuming fire destroying the altruistic impulses and the seed of faith in a higher Power that owns all life. What takes over this inner vacuity and emptiness is a bloated self dominated by the carnal desires of the ‘id.’‘Have you seen the one who has taken his own desires as his god?’

Hence the punishment for such a life is the raging fire of Hell. The fire of greed that burns to ashes all restraints, all traces of goodness ends up in the Home of Fire that crushes just like this person crushed his soul. However, the stay in this Crushing Place is eternal and ever-lasting, just as he vainly thought his joyride, his heydays of revelling in physical pleasures were going to last forever. The flames shall mount and leap high over him like towers just like his own towering ambition to possess, acquire and hold on to what was not rightfully his. That is Divine Justice.

May Allah save us from His Wrath and make us recipients of His Mercy.

 

Quran Journey Series: Reflections on Quranic verses – IV

BlindfollowingIn the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

“And they will say: “Our Lord! Verily, we obeyed our chiefs and our great ones, and they misled us from the (Right) Way. Our Lord! give them double torment and curse them with a mighty curse!” (33:66-67)

The verse illustrates the perils of blindly and unquestioningly following others because of the power and influence they wield. Islam emphatically and unequivocally rejects the notion of blind following. Even obedience to Allah and the Prophet (SAW) is based upon conscious and wilful acceptance of the faith through reason, among other things.

One of the primary functions of Islamic Tawhid is the liberation of man from bondage and slavery to other men who exploit, misuse, mislead and oppress to accentuate their own sense of power and superiority to gratify the ego.

That one bowing-down that you consider so hard

Liberates you from a thousand ignoble surrenders (Iqbal)

The Islamic position is that every human being has been endowed with consciousness and an innate moral criterion, a soul that can discern goodness and evil and the intellect (aql) that makes knowledge possible.

“And by the soul, and Him Who perfected it in proportion; Then He showed him what is wrong for him and what is right for him; Indeed he succeeds who purifies his ownself. And indeed he fails who corrupts his ownself.” (91:7-10)

Most vitally, man has been given volition and the ability to make choices on the basis of his knowledge. He is therefore made responsible for his moral choices in life. If, however, man chooses to surrender all these remarkable God-given abilities to the blind obedience of other human beings, he commits a sin against his own self, which incurs the wrath of the One who bestowed these invaluable gifts on him. Such ignoble surrender expresses ingratitude by subjugating and debasing the God-given human essence to the unworthy. It is selling oneself short. As Ali (R.A) warned,

‘The price of your Ruh (spirit) is Paradise. Do not sell it for what is lesser.’

Unconditional obedience and surrender is the exclusive right of God alone, because He deserves it. Surrendering ourselves to powerful human beings and obeying them unconditionally is therefore a violation of the fundamental belief that Allah alone deserves our devotion, adoration and obedience. It is hence a form of rank ‘shirk’ to accord the exclusive privilege of God to the lesser and unworthier.

Obeying the powerful is a sign of weakness as one allows fear of consequences, external pressures or the incentive of short-term material benefits to take over, shutting off one’s rationality and strangling one’s free will, so that one spiritually degenerates into a mind-controlled sleepwalking zombie ready to take orders to mechanically and unquestioningly carry them out.

Such human beings harm not only themselves but become instruments of grave harm to society. They become the means for the powerful to carry out their exploitative and oppressive practices. Through their obedience they lend strength to the arrogant oppressor. They become cogs in the machine sustaining the unjust system consciously or unconsciously. These are the ‘careerists’- the numberless anonymous obedient and efficient clerks who execute the commands of the tyrants on high and work hard to keep in place the system that supports the oppressive status quo. Chris Hedges describes them as:

‘…armies of bureaucrats serving a corporate system that will quite literally kill us. They are as cold and disconnected… They carry out minute tasks. They are docile. Compliant. They obey. They find their self-worth in the prestige and power of the corporation, in the status of their positions and in their career promotions. It is moral schizophrenia. They erect walls to create an isolated consciousness. They destroy the ecosystem, the economy and the body politic… They feel nothing. And the system rolls forward. The polar ice caps melt. The droughts rage over cropland. The drones deliver death from the sky. The state moves inexorably forward to place us in chains. The sick die. The poor starve. The prisons fill. And the careerist, plodding forward, does his or her job.’

Over the history of Islam, it was the trend of blind following of rigid juristic schools (taqlid) in exclusion to all others that created fixity and stasis, and hence stunted the progress of Muslim society through the ongoing process of ijtihad sanctioned by Allah, to be made in the light of His revelations and the use of the aql bestowed by Him.

The warning is loud and clear: we cannot ward off responsibility of our actions by blindly following powerful clerics, rulers, chiefs, monarchs, dictators, tyrants and cult-figures. Our freedom to choose on the basis of the rules inspired and established by God is one of the greatest gifts we have been given. And when we exercise this freedom to make the right choices, we earn the love of Allah, and find our way back to Him. Allowing others to rob us off this freedom for petty short-term benefits is to sell away one’s soul in an unholy pact with the devil. It is our freedom as moral agents that makes us ‘the best of all creation’ (Ahsan i taqweem), and it is our rejection of the gift in order to mindlessly hero-worship anyone who owns power that debases us into ‘the lowest of the low’ (Asfalasaafileen).

As Muslims we must remember that we are all individually and directly accountable to Allah alone; answerable for every single choice we make- and in His court, the power of all others comes to naught as sham. It is not our association with a person of power and influence that can salvage us, but our own individual conduct based on our conscious moral choices. The delusions of worldly grandeur are transient and misleading. In the Glory, Greatness and Majesty of the Divine, all else fades away into nothingness:

‘And all that remains is the Grace and Majesty of your Lord’ (Surah Rahman) 

———————————————–

`Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies; whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear —
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’ (Shelley: ‘Ozymandias’)

 

Quran Journey Series – Reflections on Quranic verses – III

heavens

In the Name of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful

‘What? Can there be a doubt about Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth?’ (Surah Ibrahim chapter 14, verse 10)

Often the yardstick of logic and science is used to ‘prove’ the existence of God. That endeavour is somewhat misplaced because of its concession to the idea that God is a subject that depends on proof on the terms set by the dictates of human reason. It places human reason and logic above the Noumenal Absolute which in essence cannot be traversed by reason alone.

‘Go beyond Reason’s light! Reason is the lamp that shows the road but does not mark the destination.’ (Iqbal)

The Quran’s majesty does not depend on such proof. The above verse is an emphatic interjection that attests to the Haqq and asserts it to be beyond doubt and conjecture. It is beyond the reach of human reason for it is an altogether different realm with an altogether different set of rules not determined by or dependent upon the phenomenal world. To tread into this realm is to take flight on the wings of faith through making the leap over the giant intractable abyss that cannot be traversed by reason.

According to the Quran, anticipating a purpose of life and a need for guidance out of sheer humility are prerequisites for reaching faith. Seeing is not believing, hence ‘Eeman bil Ghayb‘ (belief in the unseen). God has decided that we will not see Him in this life. He sent signs and revelations and messengers, enjoining belief in the Unseen.

The belief He requires of us will come about by only His rules. In God’s judgement when the intuitive and intellectual capabilities He has endowed us with combine with circumstances in which we have acquired knowledge of His signs and revelations, He becomes justified in demanding from us belief in the unseen and obedience to His revealed guidance. Traversing the path to belief that God has laid down will always require good faith and noble conduct from us: God’s terms, the demands of His test do not need greater evidence.

The ‘argument’ for faith rests upon religious experience. Religious/mystical experience transcends and defies existing notions of reality and existence and leaves one in awe. Religious experience may not provide all the answers to all logical questions but leaves on the mind impressions of an expansive transcendent consciousness. However, while this kind of an experience helps us reach faith, it does not necessarily lead to Islamic Monotheism (Deen Al Haneef).

The notion of a personal God that communicates to humanity to let His will be known is essentially drawn from scriptures and not only inspired by intuitive human insight- works that are by definition attributed to a deity that is at the same time both transcendent and immanent.

It must be remembered, however, that the Quran does not accept an absurd faith from its believer lacking the capacity to discern fundamental differences among varying belief systems. We are enjoined to accept the best believable option, most likely to be revealed by a divine source, the message most befitting of an all-Knowing all-Powerful God.

The Quran uses logical reasoning where it works, and in fact celebrates the exercise of reasoning as a God-given gift (‘aql’):

‘Do you not think?’ (2:44)

It accords a vital role to reason as a means to raise vital existential questions which finally are resolved or fade into irrelevance through faith. It calls for reason to differentiate between the truth and the falsehood and reject the falsity of polytheistic belief. This is the lesson from Ibrahim (A.S)’s insightful journey to the Truth. It was his innate fitrah that led him to seek and wonder and created a revulsion to falsehood while instilling a fundamental recognition of the Truth through its essential attributes. He then used his reason to find out where the answers may lie and understand what specific attributes the Truth could be identified by.

So when the night outspread over Ibrahim, he saw a star; he said, “This is my Lord.” But when the star set [in the morning,] he said, ”[This cannot be my Lord because it has passed away,] I do not like the transitory [gods].” (6:75)

Reason took him a long way, but beyond a point where he realized that the attributes of the finite created world could not be extended to apply to the Creator of the world, it failed to suffice. That is when Ibrahim (A.S) exclaimed,

“If my Lord did not guide me, then I shall surely be of the people who have gone astray.” 

And he soared on the wings of faith, reaching absolute certainty (yaqeen) and a profound conviction that translated into his selfless and resolute passion.

This yaqeen he was blessed with through honest submission was a force elevated above the confines of reason that had assisted the earlier part of his journey. In its intensity, this feeling in the heart defies the logic in the head- hence he readies himself to bear pain and torture beyond human endurance, out of ardent Love born out of an unshakable conviction and loving recognition of Divinity.

It is those who have tasted the sweetness of absolute, pure faith in the Divine that can exclaim with certainty:

‘What! Can there be a doubt about Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth? 

God’s acceptance of someone as a true believer and His weighing of factors that lead to true belief do not give evidence or logic precedence over humane conduct and good faith. The God of Muhammad SAW is keen to accept those as His believers who retain something of the noble nature on which He created them (fitrah). He rejects those that have wronged themselves through cruelty and arrogance.

Quran Journey Series – Reflections on Quranic verses – II

datepalmIn the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful

“See you not how Allah sets forth a parable? – A goodly word as a goodly tree, whose root is firmly fixed, and its branches (reach) to the sky (i.e. very high).

Giving its fruit at all times, by the Leave of its Lord and Allah sets forth parables for mankind in order that they may remember.” (14: 24-25)

One of the most powerful and profound metaphors in the Quran: the upstanding tree firmly rooted in faith. I have always imagined the goodly tree to be a date-palm, perhaps because of this Hadith narrated by Umar (R.A): The Prophet (sallAllahu alayhi wasallam) said,

“Amongst the trees, there is a tree, the leaves of which do not fall and it is like a Muslim. Tell me the name of that tree.” Everybody started thinking about the trees of the desert areas. And I thought of the date-palm tree but felt too shy to answer. The others then asked, “What is that tree, O Allah’s Apostle?” He replied, “It is the date-palm tree.”

Sahih Bukhari, Book of Knowledge, Hadith #58

The date palm reaches out to the sky, standing tall and erect with its single branch-less trunk that goes straight up- somewhat like the spiritual pursuit of the Muslim seeking the Majestic Face of his Lord. The trunk is wedged, as if to aid the feet of the climber, the seeker of the sweetness higher up. Climbing up the date-palm is like walking the Steep Path which Allah mentions in Surah Balad, verses 11-14.

“But he has made no effort to pass on the path that is steep. And what will make you know the path that is steep? (It is) Freeing a neck (slave, etc.) Or giving food in a day of hunger (famine)…” (90:11-14)

The ascent is laborious and arduous, but the end is the sweetness of Eeman.

As the Hadith as well as the original verse mention, the date-palm is evergreen: bearing fruit in all seasons. Like the Muslim (submitted one) who remains steadfast in faith and is a consistent doer of good whether the going is tough or whether the circumstances are in one’s favour: creating for himself a win-win situation out of everything. As the Prophet (SAW) said,

“How wonderful is the affair of the believer, for his affairs are all good, and this applies to no one but the believer. If something good happens to him, he is thankful for it and that is good for him. If something bad happens to him, he bears it with patience and that is good for him.” (Narrated by Muslim, 2999).

Faith enables us to bear fruit no matter what ground we’re planted in, no matter what season it is: springtime or fall. For the energy comes from the inner treasure of faith, not from a salubrious external environment. The Muslim’s khayr (goodness) is not seasonal or conditional or time-bound.

The date-palm grows in the desert, in arid waterless lands. It promises nourishment, comfort and shade to the wearied desert dweller and the wayfarer. Its deep roots enable it to reach water that is not easily accessible. Its deep roots give it firmness, making it stand tall in the scorching barren desert under the blazing skies.

The date-palm grows in clumps, in community: life-giving oases in the wastelands. It marks the presence of water, beckoning the traveller and the seeker towards itself with hope and the glad tidings it exudes by its very existence. It is a place of refuge: energizing, revitalizing. In all this are traits of the believer. When Maryam (A.S) was in pain and distress, Allah gave her refuge, rest and comfort under the date-palm:

“And shake towards yourself the trunk of the date-palm  it will let fall on you fresh, ripe dates.” (19:25)

It is the deep-rootedness that makes its branches reach higher up. Just like connection with your origin and essence, your history and genesis- that is, Allah who we come from- makes us mindful of our direction and purpose, fuels our journey onward and blesses us with spiritual elevation and moral uprightness. It is by looking back that we go forward. It is by being poised in the ethos of our existence (the fitrah) that we make the circle of life whole.

And at the apex of its journey, the highest point, the slender branchless trunk springs into a rich profusion and luxuriance of deep green leaves, at the core of which lies the hard-won prize, the fruit of labour: the date that is enriched with healthful, delectable sweetness: like the sweetness of eeman engendered over the long years of struggling in His way unifocally, with fear and with hope; and the sweetness of Allah’s Pleasure and reward that awaits us at the long journey’s end.

Quran Journey Series – Reflections on Quranic Verses: I

QuranJourneyIn the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

“And verily! This your religion (of Islamic Monotheism) is one religion, and I am your Lord, so keep your duty to Me. But they (men) have broken their religion among them into sects, each group rejoicing in its belief. So leave them in their error for a time.”

(Surah Mominoon, verses 52-54)

I was struck by these verses because Allah addresses the believers in a direct, intimate manner: ‘I am your Lord, so keep your duty to Me’, reminding us with extraordinary simplicity and stark clarity, of the truth writ large that we must acknowledge. The duty we owe to Him is to hold on to this Truth with steadfastness, and live it out in our lives by submitting ourselves to His will.

The verses present a link between Unity of the Creator which is the essence and pivot of Islam, and the unity of humankind. It presents the universality of the truth embodied in Islam. The vision here is of oneness, singleness, wholeness and harmony: that there is a single truth, not versions of it. The Truth has no plurality. It is universal, unchanging, unvarying, absolute. All else which is not the truth is a deviation, corruption, distortion.

It is this deviation from the truth that splinters us into sects, denominations, cults and groups. This splintering up is a distancing from the truth and an alienation from the source of the truth, i.e Allah. The healing and harmonizing comes from an acknowledgement of and submission to that truth with our hearts and souls. It is reaching this truth that liberates us from misguidance, doubt, falsehood, discord and conflict.
An important insight is that the call of Islam is addressed universally and the truth it presents is forever and for all. The vision of Islam and the ideal it presents is the unity of all mankind through faith.
The fact that there is only a single universal truth (not truths), helps us understand that all faiths carry that same essence and hence share common origins. It is the corruption and distortion over the ages that smothers the truth that lies undiscovered at the heart, and creates difference. It is by reaching for that pristine essence within that we reach Unity, and that is where we come to rest:

“Say O People of the Book! Come to that which is common between us and you: that we worship none but Allah and we associate no partners with Him.” 

Islam preserves in itself the pristine truth. When by honest inquiry and sincere search one removes the theological trappings that gathered over the ages, one is left with the marrow of it, the very heart: the Truth, and nothing but… this is the truth succinctly echoing in ‘La ilaha il Allah’.

To me, these verses are a powerful condemnation of sectarian tendencies that use religious difference to divide and hate. They expose sectarianism as a grotesque travesty, a betrayal and a going astray. Theological and juristic debate which intensifies difference, highlights it and uses it to divide human beings must be rejected as it violates the core message of Islam: the unity of mankind through the Unity of God, to which the heart of man testifies, and which is engraved in the heart of the universe.

It also teaches tolerance and keeps us from judgement of others in matters of faith, as the best judgement lies with Allah. While we acknowledge and proclaim the message of Islam as a universal call, we do not impose or coerce or hurt or unfairly judge in case of denial; against the animosity of those who reject and hate the truth, we take comfort in the fact that all is within the all seeing Eye of Allah, and He is the Best Judge between us.

Say No to Extremism – Stand Up

Terrorism has no religionWhat happens when events recur so often that we become accustomed to them? They end up becoming a part of our lives and we learn to live with them.

Pakistan came into existence because it was seen as the sole solution to safeguard the rights of the minority i.e. Muslims. However, the very basis of the creation of Pakistan was soon violated by its people; a country where Quaid had promised utmost respect and security for the minorities became the breeding ground for extremism and intolerance. A country which had been envisioned to be a land of justice has faced nothing but disappointment because we all failed to live up to the expectations of the father of the nation. We have not been able to make the country into what it was supposed to be.

It might be a just argument to say that it’s not the ‘us’ but ‘them’; the terrorists, the extremists, the corrupt politicians and the rival countries adamant to crumble our country. However, we have failed to grasp the fact that in reality we are the ones who are nourishing this injustice and violence. What else can make those militants who are not even 1/10th of the population annihilate our peace? We believe that we cannot make a difference by talking about sectarianism and genocides, that we are not capable of changing the course of things. We have made our lives congested for ourselves, being oblivious to everything happening around us and remaining silent to the attacks intended at minorities. And once we allowed this oppression to exist, its grotesque growth became inevitable. In our country, each terrorist attack is treated as a forgotten memory and a ghost which lurks to haunt us. “Iss mulk ka kuch nahi ho sakta” and other such phrases define our meek submissiveness to fate. We have entitled ourselves as the ones in disdain, the ones who are helpless.

“The nation which reposes on the pillow of political confidence will sooner or later end its political existence in a deadly lethargy. (Quote by – James Madison)”

We are unaware of our potential, our real power. We are unwilling to believe that we are capable of bringing about the change, the ‘tabdeeli’ that is so much talked about these days. It’s not a single man, a single government that can revive peace in our country overnight. To get rid of the darkness of cruelty we have to gather ourselves, realize our strengths and work together. It’s high time we start owning responsibility for our current condition and realise that it was our negligence which has allowed thousands to be killed till now. Things will not change until we are prepared to change them, until we decide to talk about them and start thinking about the solutions. Discussing an issue is the first step towards eliminating it. Instead of running away from things which scare or hurt us, we should face up to them and start our own war against them, for peace. We should take the fate of our land in our own hands and work for its betterment and make sure that the sacrifices that were made to claim this piece of land which we call home don’t go in vain.

Ramadhan – The Month of The Quran

Ramadhan 

“The month of Ramadhan is the month in which the Quran was revealed; a guide for the people, the most authoritative of all guidance and a criteria to discern right from wrong”. (Al Baqarah:185)

As Muslims around the world celebrate the arrival of Ramadhan – the month of compassion, reflection and forgiveness – they also gear up to come nearer to their Lord through the Glorious Quran. Ramadhan provides an ideal atmosphere for righteousness in general but it particularly provides an opportunity to improve upon one’s study of the Holy Quran. As expounded by the Almighty Himself in the above quoted verse, there is a special connection between the Noble Quran and the blessed month of Ramadhan. Thus, this month also provides an ideal occasion to build, develop or strengthen a personal relationship with the Book of Allah, and through it with the Rahman Himself.

Our beloved Prophet (peace and Allah’s Mercy be upon him) devoted his lifetime in delivering Allah’s Message. Ponder on the thought for a moment that the epitome of Allah’s creation, the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad (peace and Allah’s Mercy be upon him), had to bear twenty three long years of continuous hardships for delivering this Message, the Glorious Quran. For Muslims, bearing the love for their Holy Prophet (peace and Allah’s Mercy be upon him) in their hearts is part of faith. Association with the Message that was Muhammad’s (peace and Allah’s Mercy be upon him) lifetime mission, thus, must ensue out of the love for Muhammad (peace and Allah’s Mercy be upon him). During Ramadhan, every Muslim ought to probe his or her heart for the sincerity in his claim for the love for Allah and His beloved Prophet (peace and Allah’s Mercy be upon him). For, amongst the followers of the Prophet (peace and Allah’s Mercy be upon him), there are those about which the following expression of the Holy Prophet (peace and Allah’s Mercy be upon him) on the Day of Judgment is narrated in the Quran itself:

“And the Messenger will say: “O my Lord! Verily, my people deserted this Quran””. (Al-Furqan:30)

For Muslims, merely the recitation of the Noble Quran should not suffice as being enough for the ultimate salvation. Although it is a guide for mankind in general but for Muslims, it is meant to be read, understood, acted upon and propagated. The character Islam wants to build for a Muslim, the society it wants to develop, the bond it wants to establish amongst mankind and their Creator is all contained in this divine “User’s Manual”. Allah does not burden a person beyond one’s capacity and thus each Muslim has to fulfill his obligation to the Noble Quran to the utmost of his personal capacity. Our beloved Prophet (peace and Allah’s Mercy be upon him) has demonstrated that this is a continuous and life long process. The following verse can be related to the understanding of the Holy Quran to a person’s intellectual capacity:

“When they will be brought into the presence of God, He will ask them, “Did you reject My revelations without fully understanding them. What did you know about them if you had any knowledge at all?” (An-Naml: 84)

The effort towards developing an improved understanding of the Quran is not cumbersome if attempted as a convenient daily routine suiting one’s individual capacity, capability and commitments. The first step of any journey is the most important one. The road to salvation would be easy to tread if it is divided into small manageable steps while the final goal be kept in sight.

“It is better for you to learn (understand) a single verse of Holy Quran in the morning rather to pray hundreds of Rakaat”. (Ibn-e-Ma’ja, 1:619)

Allah has repeatedly mentioned in the Quran in various contexts that He has made His Word easy to understand, remember and preach. The ambience of Ramadhan provides time to reflect upon one’s commitment to his faith and thus to the Book of Guidance and Mercy. A suitable routine towards improved Quranic comprehension initiated in Ramadhan can follow through into the whole year and subsequently into one’s whole life.

It is a time to answer the call of the Quran –

“And We have indeed made the Qur’an easy to understand and remember: then is there any that will receive admonition?” (Al-Qamar:17)

– with a positive mind, a open heart and a balanced approach. In Quran’s own words taught to us:

“We hear and obey. Grant us Your forgiveness, Lord, to You we shall all return!” (Al Baqarah:285).

Culminating with the following supplication:

“O Allah! let me receive Your mercy by means of the Noble Qur’an and make it my guide as well as a source of light, direction and grace for me. O Allah! revive my memory of whatever I have forgotten from the Noble Quran and grant me understanding of whatever part I know not, enable me to recite and follow it during hours of day and night and make it my main argumentative support”.

Wishing everyone a blessed and enlightening Ramadhan….

 

When a Mob Sacked Democracy

Egypt-Morsi“Truth never damages a cause that is just” ~ Ghandhi

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” ~ Martin Luthor King

Today is a throbbing day for democracy, rule of law, legitimacy, truth, factuality, principle and any other word that fits into the same category. An elected head of the state, with a victory margin of a million votes, was overthrown by an army chief who said blatantly and shamelessly ‘this is not a coup‘.  Shadi Hamid, a renowned analyst on Egypt and the director of research at the Brookings Institute, Doha, was almost spontaneous when he replied ‘If this is not a coup, the word “military coup” no longer have any meaning‘.

https://twitter.com/evanchill/status/352492220387041282

Robert Fisk writes:

For the first time in the history of the world, a coup is not a coup. The army take over, depose and imprison the democratically elected president, suspend the constitution, arrest the usual suspects, close down television stations and mass their armour in the streets of the capital.  But the word ‘coup’ does not – and cannot – cross the lips of the Blessed Barack Obama.

The inclinations and operations of Supreme Council of Armed Forces of Egypt better known as SCAF have been dubious at best from early on. Not that it is any excuse but this is a problem ingrained to all countries with powerful militaries and shallow and weak democractic institutions. The Egyptian military is no exception. In Post- Mubarak Egypt of early 2011, when SCAF was all in all of Egypt and protests broke out against it, the military police killed 14 unarmed protestors and attacked journalists in the famous Tehrir square. How can one forget the poor Egyptian woman in the clip who being seized by her hair was dragged unto the street with her abaya torn apart. Mona Eltawy, one of the secular voices, who was a strong part of protest movements in 2011 was attacked, sexually assaulted and recovered only with her arm broken by the same military police. These are a few examples of the legacy of policies kept for half a century of oppression directed towards political opponents. And trapped at the center of it was Muslim Brotherhood for last few decades.

One has to look back a few decades of the near past, if the real face of SCAF, the dictatorship, is to be unveiled. Concentration camps, extrajudicial killings, military trials, as well as some of the worst torture techniques known to man is the essence of the methods deployed on brotherhood workers and leaders. There is no reason to believe that the present day SCAF is any different. As a matter of fact, mumbling started on twitter the moment SCAF started movement last night regarding retribution and violence against Islamists. The ban on leaving the country put on twenty Muslim brotherhood leaders including Morsi is another indicator shedding some light on the gravity of the situation. [It should be remembered that the ban is applied despite there being no cases of fraud, attack or any such incidents from citizens of Egypt against those twenty leaders. Not once was the use of excessive force utilized by presidency against protests against him. Compare that with Mubarak times or Suleiman times in 2011 and the difference is un-concealable.]

There is no doubt in any serious analyst’s mind that the protests in Tehrir today are the direct result of prevailing dire economical scenario, petrol and electricity shortages in particular yet the anarchy is ironically preposterous. Tamarod (rebels) the group that coined the June 30th protest idea was formed just a few months ago. The one unequivocal demand they put forward unshakingly, was that the President of the majority of Egyptians, who they voted for themselves just an year ago, should resign. The reason: because he was unable to fulfill the promises of a prosperous economy, a reformed justice system and security of the country in 365 days, only 20% of the time he was given to serve.  Absurd, stupid, foolish and what not! Even for a newly democractic-leaning country like Pakistan once you think about. But this is how it works in an naïve and unmellowed system with volcanic political scenario and opportunistic opposition leaders who don’t even care about the precedence they are going to set, for not only the next government but the Egyptian generations to come. Tamarod leaders were as stupid as to say that army response actually crowns their movement

The crowd on Tehrir has been out of control. While there were few grave incidents of assaults on women when Religious and Secular Forces were protesting together against Mubarak, this time it was exceptionally high, alarming for the whole society . Guardian reported that over 90 women were raped  and sexually abused in Tehrir Square in a mere four day period. There are more than a few evidences suggesting anarchical mindsets and behaviors of protestors despite Tamarod’s repeated rejection of the presidency’s statements that put blames of such attacks on uncontrollable crowd. There were unconfirmed horrifying pictures and reports of MB youth being attacked and mauled by crowd. Another report described a brotherhood youth being burnt alive by protestors. The attacks on peaceful rallies of Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo University, the attacks and torching of the offices of brotherhood in Alexandria, Cairo, and a number of other cities summarizes the nature of the movement very clearly. The attack and shots fired on Cairo-University’s Pro-morsi protestors, who had the same right to protest as the Tehrir’s Anti-Morsi protestors,was an example of blatant savagery and ruthlessness of the crowd. 14 Morsi supporters died on spot, another 4 in hospital later while police watched. Putting aside the anarchy, the sheer use of violence, and the ridiculous demands, the hallmark of the Tamarod movement can be visually evident in the way they welcomed toppling of a legitimate democracy by an illegitimate force, the SCAF. Shadi Hamid put it forwards accurately:

Obviously, Morsi did make mistakes as was expected of him being the first democratically elected leader of the country. The presidential decree, the tax on IMF’s behest, the Attorney General  decision were the most highlighted of the bad decisions. The huge turnout against him would never have been possible, had the matters been smoothly run and the whole scenario would have been different. The most significant finding, however, that an analyst can easily draw from this crisis is the hypocrisy of the secularists. The same Egyptian secularists (to clarify: though these secularists like to consider themselves liberal we cannot fathom any reason to bestow them with this title. They are intolerant, prejudiced, closed-minded in practice, exactly what constitutes a non-liberal fascist) ran head over heels for protests against a presidential decree that gave Morsi almost absolute powers, which he needed to bypass a controversial court decision concerning political system. Similarly they condemned and were furious when the attorney general charged the famous satirist with contempt against president when he mocked the president during Morsi’s Pakistan visit and later when he mocked a salafist religious figure for his beard. The freedom of press can never be compromised, they said. Ironically, both of these two freedoms were snubbed last night with a lot more by SCAF. Aljazeera Mubashir crew was arrested for ‘undirected reporting’. Brotherhood’s Channel Misr 25 was forced shut with its crew arrested. Last nail in coffin: The interim president has decree powers. The protesting secularists cheerfully accepted both without a single word. Hypocrisy at its peak!


The role of United States was a replay of diplomacy it showed in 2011 as Mubarak was being ousted. While correctly showing concern for the assaults on women and the violence, President Obama correctly mentioned to his Egyptian counterpart that democracy is not only about voting. The 1.3 billion US aid for Egypt is based on a democracy based criteria. “We don’t make those decisions [on aid] just by counting the number of heads in a protest march, but we do make decisions based on whether or not a government is listening to the opposition, maintaining a free press, maintaining freedom of assembly, not using violence or intimidation, conducting fair and free elections,” Obama said on Tuesday amid SCAF’s ultimatum, subtly recognizing the fact that a free-press is still an entity in Egypt, and violence is still not used by state. It’ll be upto the US state officials and lawmakers how they interpret this recent turn of events which can be of huge consequence for Egypt. Labeling it a ‘coup’ would disqualify Egypt from this aid, an act that can be a huge blow to the paralyzed and sinking economy of the country. The political ambience of Washington DC put together with the history of US policies is however not suggestive of this. Ed Royce, a republican and the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is all but concerned on military take over. The grin of islamophobes would not be easily disguisable over this epic fiasco of one of the largest experiment on the political system of Islam. The aid is the reason the Egyptian spokesperson and SCAF leader are going at great lengths not to get these events labeled as coup. It is also partinent to mention here that Obama’s support and gratitude to Morsi for the major part he played in terminating the war on Gaza by Israel, the IMF loan approval last year has fuelled enough conspiracy theorists among Egyptians linking the organization of brotherhood to US. Secularists put forward this propaganda and used it to their gain very successfully in recent protest campaign.

Finally, Let us present the most ironic, interesting yet disturbing comparison that is able to show the gist of all the hassle that is SCAF Vs Brotherhood Vs Secularists. 300 arrest warrants have been issued against MB leaders, 100 of MB leaders are put on Exit Control List in addition, Speaker of the parliament Al-Katatni alongwith another 300 was arrested. Supreme leader of brotherhood is arrested. Article 174 of Penal Code “Incitement to overthrow government” is punishable offense under Egypt’s law, and will probably be used to register cases against MB leaders and workers. There have been dozens of protest movements against Morsi in previous year. Not once was any illegitimate arrests made, or such articles of penal code  used by Morsi. Yet the standpoint of International media & secularists is: Morsi is is the axis of Evil, and SCAF is our heroes.

There are lessons to learn for all the Islamic movements in the world in this monstrous experiment of Egypt. The take away is of a serious moral nature for the so-portrayed ‘liberals’ of the Muslim world. They should decide what they want more, their cause or the truth, as well as honesty, justice, legitimacy, authenticity, principle, and so on. For Islamists, Abdul Kader Haqqani of Algerian Islamic Movement summed it up rather short.

“(For Islamic groups) Political victory is more dangerous than defeat” 

 

In the Name of National Security

national-security2
STOP! Hands up! Halt! Pass through the full body scanner, motor bikes, pillion riding and cellular services are banned. Do not dare take your mobile phone, camera, or any other electronic device for the matter, inside the building/office and hand it over to the guard (don’t forget; they have no liability in case of damage or loss of your belongings). All this while a caution in contonment areas of KPK reads: Qareeb aanay walon ko goli maar di jaaee gee (anyone to come closer will be shot).

After 9/11, there has been a curb in human rights in most states. In the name of national security, states are violating basic human rights. To legitimize their violations and illegal restrictions, states conjure up ridiculously strict and draconian laws like the ‘Prevention of terrorism Act’ 2002 POTA India and ‘Anti terrorism Act’ 1997 ATA Pakistan.

The issue of missing persons, unlawful detention, violation of personal and privacy matters, such as the government  introducing a “Fair trial act 2012”, by which phone and email records of given individuals can be reproduced as an admissible evidence before Court. Moreover, Police would be authorized for spying and inspecting the personal phone records of any individual without prior permission of the Court. Harassment by the law enforcement agencies, extra-judicial killings, restrictions on individual liberties, such as the restrictions and bans on necessities of life like mobile phones and motor bikes,  as well as others,  have become the commonest of human rights violations by the State.

Our law enforcement agencies fail to provide security, and they also fail to hide their failure when they get hold of innocent people in the name of Karwai (investigation), in the meantime, spying, disrespecting and harassing to maintain “national security”. The actual culprit on the other hand, bails out and takes the benefit of doubt in courts with the help of insufficient evidence, loopholes in existing laws and incomplete challan produced by police for their crime.

This abuse of power by law enforcement agencies terrorizing the whole society and creating a war-like situation throughout the country, as well as these harsh security measures creating an unsecured and fear-prone environment in the country, is why citizens cannot freely enjoy their rights, freedoms and liberties in our society which has been explicitly given to them in our constitution.

These law enforcement agencies consider themselves above the law and no one dares to ask them about their actions. They look and treat every noble citizen as a criminal and enemy to the state. They inspect in a disrespectful manner and ask stupid questions. They lack basic mannerisms and fail to understand how decent individuals are to be spoken to. A lot of innocent people lose their lives in illegal custody and many are inflicted with fatal damages and injuries that haunt them for the whole lives as a gift of “National Security”. According to Code of Criminal Procedure CrPC,  a person arrested is not be detained for more than 24 hours without being presenting before the Court. Yet, many are never even presented before any court of law.

Now it is the responsibility of the UN, nation-states, political parties and all human rights NGOs to make sure the authority of law is established, and set some rules to prevent the abuse of power by law enforcement agencies. Moreover, security measures adopted by these authorities should be for the protection of citizens, not to terrorize or humiliate them; it should also be friendly, and handled in a decent and civilized manner.

This is the time to find out the root cause behind the crime and terrorism. It is also the time to stop throwing away the basic principles of civilized order in the name of ‘national security’.

But ‘What is MBFC?’

302931_248959945161026_1585264984_nChange is one of the most popular themes in contemporary Pakistan. But what exactly do we mean by ‘change’, and even more importantly, why do we need it so badly? This is something that we should all learn to question. When we demand something, we should be conscious of what it is exactly. This question is even more relevant when it comes to ‘My Bit for Change’. It is common to be asked what we mean precisely by our bit of ‘Change’.  It becomes eerily more difficult to respond to such questions when certain inquirers come with their own framework of change and refuse to take any other possibility as a legitimate concern for social action. I will be trying in the following lines to clarify where we stand when we talk of change.

Most people see change as a one-time event. Many more view change as something that happens, not always something that is done. Others see change as all-encompassing and all-imposing, or to say; what I want for others.  Some people see change as simply to challenge all things upheld in society as good and desirable. Some people see change as refusing anything that challenges established norms and values of society, whether such things are themselves oppressive and condemnatory. Some people don’t see change as anything but a simple slogan behind which the popular trend is going, while others see change as a call for irresponsible and disruptive action geared towards dismantling the social order.

To accommodate all such views under a singular umbrella would be too difficult a task for even the brightest of relativists. We, however, would only consider such an endeavor to be outright pointless and directionless.  Because from our point of view; when you set your eyes in every direction, you’re not heading anywhere. There is a fine line between being accommodative and accepting all opinions as equally valid.

Our conception of change is one that is a life-time endeavor; a struggle; a jihad; a constant effort to improve ourselves and the world around us. There is no permanent state of perfection, at least not in this world, and we believe in relentlessly looking within ourselves critically and engagingly, and continuously improving ourselves and coming out as better human beings.

We endorse Rumi’s conception of change from the depths of being, who said, “Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” And just as Gandhi put it, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

We also believe that change doesn’t come, it is something you have to bring, or to invent, or to create. One should be in charge of destiny and fate, and not the other way around.

As Iqbal would suggest, “Khudi ko kar buland itna ke har taqdeer se pehle, Khuda banday se khud pooche, bata teri raza kiya hai.”  (“Rise above yourself so high that even God, before deciding upon your fate, should ask you: Tell me, what would you like?”), and also, “Na Tu Zameen Ke Liye Hai Na Aasmaan Ke Liye. Jahaan Hai Tere Liye, Tu Nahin Jahan Ke Liye” (You are neither for the earth nor for the heaven: The world is for you, and not you for the world.)

We want the world to be a better place, a more peaceful and tolerant place, for all human beings whether they live in the ‘developed’ world or the ‘developing’ world; whether they belong to the majority or minority; or whether they belong to one so-called civilization or the other. Our call is a call to be human, and humanity begins at empathy; and realizing that persons other than you also feel, desire, and think, that they too have an existence as much valid as yours.

We don’t consider MBFC to be an ‘Islamic’ forum, if by doing so one is dividing a Muslim population and society across lines of ‘Islamic’ and ‘Non-Islamic’, or between acts of ‘Deen’ (religion) and acts of ‘Duniya’ (this world). For the first matter, we don’t believe Muslims can be categorized against a scale telling them who is how much ‘Islamic’. It is not our job to say who is more or less Islamic, or Muslim, as this is a matter of individual conscience, as well as one’s private relationship with the Almighty. It is not in our jurisdiction, but God’s alone, to judge other peoples religiosity. Secondly we don’t believe in the duality of our faith with the matters of this world. We believe that faith is as much a matter of this world as it is of the Hereafter. From our perspective, while praying is an act of worship so is earning an honest living or spending quality time with one’s family. In this sense, we consider ourselves ‘Islamic’ not as separate, but as part of the broader Muslim society. This is not to say that we exclude the non-Muslim voice either. A non-Muslim perspective has its own validity and legitimacy in a fully functioning Islamic society.

What one should grasp from the above description is that we want to bring people closer and not further apart. We are staunchly against sectarianism but also strongly against extreme polarization in society. We feel that extreme positions often fail to take the existence of another perspective into account. While religious extremism has been condemned and spoken of in media discourse; an opposite extremist discourse is also a common sight. Both depend on each other, as without the presence of the opposite, there would be little for either to say. To be exact, both speak in absolute and exclusivist terms; they talk about each other but never to each other. It should not come as a surprise that both sides have tried to attack our forum, either in the form of hate-mail to some of our writers or through certain reason-free writings.

This may be taken as a cost for trying to be moderate. To be moderate, of course, is not to merely take a balanced position in the middle of two extreme discourses; it is to refuse to fall prey to either. Some may not realize this but sometimes a loud call for moderation may be the most radical attack on extremists. To refuse to fight them is to defeat them.

But this is not where we end. We have continuously adopted an anti-imperialist, anti-hegemonic and anti-oppression stance. We have been very vocal against the drone attacks, as well as persons undermining their brutality, and such horrifying incidents as an American spy killing innocent civilians in the daylight of one of our major cities. We have spoken against outright human rights violations, such as the illegitimate kidnapping of our citizens, especially the case of Afia Siddiqui, and calling them ‘missing persons’. We have voiced concern for the brutal attacks on the Shia Hazara community in Quetta, as well as the tragic Badami Bagh incident. We have also spoken against various oppressive measures of state institutions and the state itself.

We have also been firm believers in accelerating the process of decolonization. We believe that has yet to end. The legacies of colonization are strongly visible even today, some more tangible than others. We have spoken against the usage of a certain language and traits that show of a false ‘superiority’. We have advocated pride in our own national, cultural and religious heritage. We have promoted such figures as Iqbal and Malcolm X for this very reason. And to quote our favorite activist for change, the latter of the two,

“A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself.”